


Still Breathing

by SaintEpithet



Series: Sons of Fire - Beric & Thoros Oneshots [2]
Category: Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Episode: s07e06 Beyond the Wall, Gen, Grief, Implied/Referenced Character Death, One Shot, Short
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-03
Updated: 2017-09-03
Packaged: 2018-12-23 12:58:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 305
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11990280
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SaintEpithet/pseuds/SaintEpithet
Summary: Hundreds of living corpses, gone. Except one. Except him.





	Still Breathing

The air tasted like ashes, like the fire that had died in the wind, like the absence of a flame.

Thoros was gone and the world had disappeared with him.

The remaining men on the small rocky island, gone. Their voices, their attempts to offer consolation, gone. The icy Lands of Always Winter with their sharp mountains, their frozen lakes, their vast white valleys, gone. Hundreds of living corpses, gone. Except one.

Except him.

Never before had Beric felt this alone in the world. Not at Mummer's Ford, when his men were falling like flies after Clegane's ambush and the air was filled with dust and death. Not when he could feel his heart beat slower and slower and finally stop. Not in the darkest night and storm in the forests of the Riverlands, surrounded by enemies, running low on supplies. Not when he realized he couldn't remember his family, his own parents, his home.

Thoros had been there through it all. Thoros had kept the fire burning, no matter what, through all of it, and even the darkest hours had been brighter for it. The whole world had been brighter for it. Now that flame had died, and Beric stood there, under an endless winter sky, in an endless field of white, and he could feel the darkness that had taken Thoros' place by his side. This was not the deal they had made with the Red God. Neither was supposed to face the night alone. Neither was supposed to be left behind. They were supposed to go together, in life and in death.

Six times, Beric's heart had stopped beating and six times, Thoros had brought him back.

This time, Beric's heart was breaking and nothing could put the pieces back together.

This was his last death, even though he was still breathing. 


End file.
